Some Cardinals-Cubs Series History

Happy Easter and it's Opening Day in Major League Baseball. It's a beautiful day in New Orleans right now. Let's have some fun.

Tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals visit the Chicago Cubs to kick off the 2015 MLB season. Chicago leads the series 1,190-1,116-19. In this decade however, the Cardinals lead the series 48-37 and they led the series last season 10-9. Yes, there were the St. Louis Brown Stockings. However, they folded after the 1875 season due to a game fixing scandal and the 1876-81 teams are not considered to be part of this St. Louis franchise.

Also, according to Wikipedia, there were 19 ties in the series, but those games aren't listed on mcubed.net (Cubs v Cards series). The ties are listed as losses for both teams, so I subtracted 19 losses from their records. The Baseball Reference head to head page isn't any better. The tie games aren't even counted in the head to head series. At least they're counted with overall records.

The series began in 1892, when the St. Louis Browns fell to the Chicago Colts 14-10. They went to extra innings 106 times. St. Louis leads the series in extra innings wins 58-48. In 1930, the Cubs and Cards went 20 innings before St. Louis won 8-7.

Believe it or not, in the 123 years of this rivalry, they never met in the playoffs. Prior to 1903, postseason games were considered exhibition games. With that said, before the series as we know it began, the St. Louis Browns did play the Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs) in two "World Series." In 1885, they tied 3-3-1 and in 1886, the Browns won the series 4-2.

The most runs St. Louis ever scored against Chicago was a 21-3 win in 1977. There were also a couple of 20-5 victories in 1904 and 1925. The most runs Chicago ever scored against St. Louis was a 26-8 spanking in 1894.

Unlike football, shutouts are fairly common in baseball, so they won't be listed. Each team shut out the other at least once last season.

Here are a few other tidbits:

In 1898, the Chicago Colts changed their name to the Orphans. The name lasted until 1904, when they became the Cubs.

In 1899, the St. Louis Browns changed their name to the Perfectos. That only lasted one season. In 1900, they became the St. Louis Cardinals. The Perfectos went 84-67-4 that season.

On May 15, 1960, in the second game of a double-header, Don Cardwell of the Cubs threw the only no-hitter in the series against the Cardinals. Cardwell pitched a complete games and struck out 7 batters, including Hall of Famer Stan Musial. Chicago won the game 4-0. Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks went 1-4. His only hit was a two run homerun.

In 1910 King Cole also threw a no-hitter against the Cardinals. However, the game isn't counted, because it ended after 7 innings.

And the series is renewed tonight. Good luck to both teams.

Until next time...

Have a great day!!!!